SAULT STE. MARIE — Norway did all the damage it would need in the opening inning against the Rudyard Bulldogs in a Division 4 regional baseball semifinal at James Field Saturday.

The Knights batted around the order and scored four runs in the top of the first. Norway added three more runs in the second inning and went on to a 8-1 win over the Bulldogs.

Rudyard, the defending regional champ, finished 16-10-1 overall.

"We just didn't have it today, and that's baseball," Rudyard coach Ron VanSloten said. "We dug ourselves a hole and couldn't get out of it. There were times when maybe if we could have had a key hit, something could have started. But even when we hit the ball hard, it was always at somebody, or they would make a nice play.

"Norway outplayed us," VanSloten said. "They looked like a team that was very motivated."

Norway pitcher John Grayvold Jr. limited the Bulldogs to just three hits over seven innings, while striking out seven and walking four.

Grayvold Jr. helped his own cause with three hits, while Austin Grayvold added two hits to the Knights' 8-hit attack.

It was a rematch of last season's regional final. This time the Knights won, and evened their recent postseason record against Rudyard to 2-2.

"Our kids were probably sick of hearing from me about how good Rudyard is," Norway coach Tony Adams said. "All week long, all I talked about was their team and how good they are.

"That was our best game of the year," Adams said. "We did everything pretty well, and we needed to do that to beat a very good Rudyard team."

The Knights sent 10 batters to the plate in the opening frame. Norway scored four runs on two hits, three walks and two errors by the Bulldogs in the inning.

After Grayvold Jr. led off the second inning with a single and Mike Faull drew a walk, the Bulldogs lifted starting pitcher Jake Harrison in favor of Justin Kruger. The Knights added three more runs on a 2-RBI single from Jake Rehn and another Bulldogs' error.

"We had some clutch hits, and took advantage of some uncharacteristic defensive lapses by Rudyard," Norway coach Tony Adams said. "We felt pretty good with an early lead, and Johnny on the mound."

The Knights tacked on one more run in the seventh to make it 8-0. Billy Bourg singled, moved to second on a fielder's choice and scored on a single from Bryce Grayvold.

The Bulldogs avoided the shutout with a run in the bottom of the seventh. Owen Mills scored from third base after Brady VanSloten hit a fly ball on the infield that was dropped.

Page 2 of 2 - Mills also made the best outfield play of the game, tracking down a hard-hit blast with a lunging catch down the leftfield line.

Harrison was charged with six runs on three hits over one-plus inning. Kruger allowed two runs on five hits over six innings.

James Rosebrock had a double, while Brady VanSloten and Luke Steikar had singles for the Bulldogs.

"It's a tough pill to swallow right now," VanSloten said. "But we will look to get back here again next year. We have a lot of kids coming back, and they've had a taste of making good runs in the tournament."

Atlanta 2, Norway 1: The Atlanta Huskies won their first regional baseball championship in school history, beating Norway in the title game.

Norway finished 15-6.

Atlanta (24-2) defeated Onaway 3-0 in the other regional semifinal.

The Huskies advance to a quarterfinal game against Maple City-Glen Lake at Traverse City Tuesday.